


Back to the Pilot

by Milklineep



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, Inspired By badficniverse, My First AO3 Post, My First Fanfic, My First Fanwork, My First Work in This Fandom, Spoilers for Episode: s05e18 A Single Pale Rose, Spoilers for Episode: s05e29-32 Change Your Mind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-29 14:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19832038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milklineep/pseuds/Milklineep
Summary: Steven smiled and turned to White Diamond. "I am a child. What's your excuse?"Suddenly, he hears a noise he hasn't heard in a long time. His heart sinks."The Hourglass!"A slightly canon-divergent story of Steven coping with a severe timejump. First fanfiction. Critiques welcome.Inspired by badficniverse's Tumblr post (see link in notes)





	1. Chapter 1: The Jump

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction.  
> Inspired by [badficniverse's Tumblr post](https://badficniverse.tumblr.com/post/186133098399/from-the-fanfic-back-to-the-pilot), submitted by [fionn-o-nassus](https://fionn-o-nassus.tumblr.com/).
> 
> English is not my first language. Please point out any mistakes you see. Feedback welcome.
> 
> This is a slight AU for the premise to work:  
> \- Steven and the Stevens never happened. The Pilot happened before Gem Glow.  
> \- Steven did not destroy the Hourglass of Time at the end of the Pilot.

White Diamond looks furiously on the scene unfolding in front of her.

"No! You are _Pink Diamond_! That is Pink Diamond's gem! You do not _look_ like this! You do not _sound_ like this! You are not half human, you're just... a-acting like a child!"

As White Diamond throws her tantrum and slams her fist on the ground, the two children bounce and laugh.

Steven finally says: "I am a child. What's your excuse?"

As he is saying that, he has a passing thought: " _That's what I should have said to Garnet!_ "

He suddenly notices the glow emanating from his pocket. A sound he hasn't heard for a long time...

" _NO! The Hourglass of Time!_ "

Connie looks worriedly at the glow consuming Steven.

"Sorry. I can't stop this. Got to do this all over again."

They hug just as he disappears.

* * *

"Why are you such a butt face?"

Garnet noticed that her future vision just got disturbed. She looks at Steven.

Steven sighs: "I am a child. What's your excuse?"

Garnet replies: "Phew. You did it. What happened?"

Steven resigns: "Get back!" The Electric Skull slams the ground, throwing Steven on the ledge of The Big Donut's roof.

"Come here and help me trap its hair things! We can't get close to it!"

The Gems acquiesce. They push the Donut off the roof and on top of the Electric Skull.

The Electric Skull gets blasted by lightning and poofs.

Steven gets down from the roof. He looks at Sadie and Lars, shaken by the incident.

"Don't worry, guys, I don't know what excuse you will invent, but Corporate will ship you a new sign in a week".

Steven looks at the Gems. "Let's go home".

As they walk back to the Temple, Amethysts notices that Steven's in a mood. She tries to cheer him up:

"You were awesome back there, Steven! Such a great plan!"

"Thanks, Amethyst!" — Steven replies, still saddened by his time adventure — "Pearl, do you know if you can reverse the effect of the Hourglass?"

"Well, not that I know of, but why would you? We defeated the Skull! Furthermore, the Skull might appear again from another timeline". — replied Pearl

"I think that he jumped back more than _just_ two minutes, Pearl". — guessed Garnet

"Actually, it's closer to _three years_ ". — sighed Steven — "I need to take tomorrow off and write this all down. As far as I remember, tomorrow will be uneventful. Can I do that?"

" **Three years**?!" — the Gems shouted in unison.

"Is this another prank, Steven? It's not very funny". — asked Amethyst

"No, Amethyst. I can prove it to you right now. You were created in the Alpha Kindergarten, a bit after the rebellion. Garnet, you are a fusion of Ruby and Sapphire, and you met at the Sky Arena, during the attack of Pearl and... Rose. Pearl, I know your biggest secret, but revealing it right now would be unwise."

Pearl's hands cover her mouth. Amethyst gasps. Garnet stops dead in her tracks.

"We can warp to the Strawberry Battlefield for tomorrow. We need to give Steven space". — Garnet asserted.

"And I need a good night's rest. Can you stay with me this night, Pearl? I just survived... And it was going so well... **Why does this stupid thing react to urges?** " — Steven shouted, grabbing the Hourglass of Time from his pocket and throwing it against the sand — " **I should've broken you three years ago!** " — Steven broke into crying.

The Gems looked at each other and threw themselves against Steven, hugging him. Garnet bent down and bubbled the Hourglass, sending it to the Burning Room, and joined the embrace.

Despite the despair, Steven eventually calmed down and thought: " _I survived in Homeworld's prison, just doing it all over again will be easy... And I have my powers, right?_ "


	2. Chapter 2: The Recap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  ~~Please tell me how much time has passed between Gem Glow and Change Your Mind in-universe. I am using five years as a placeholder here, but I headcanon that the Pilot was at least several months before Gem Glow, so any discrepancies will be easy to adjust there. I will retcon this eventually.~~ Thanks to [Henzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Henzy/pseuds/Henzy) I know GG to CYM is 2,5 years, therefore I headcanon Pilot to GG as 6 months.

The Gems had ended their embrace.

"Thanks, guys" — acknowledged Steven, wiping his tears. "I'm going to shower. I need to think this through".

"Do you know where your spare clothes are?" — inquired Pearl.

" **Of course, Pearl!** " — shouted Steven while climbing the stairs. Once the Gems heard the sound of the water rushing, Garnet straightened up.

"Steven's future is uncertain. But he doesn't want to see any of us tomorrow. We should have someone to check up on him. We have to tell Greg". — suggested Garnet.

"I am not calling. And I'm not giving that task to Amethyst". — Pearl replied bitterly.

"I will see you in the Temple then". — replied Garnet, leaving towards the car wash.

"Well, that was rude, Pierogi. _'Amethyst can't handle it!'_ " — teased Amethyst, shapeshifting into Pearl.

"Well, how would you explain **this** " — Pearl exclaimed, pointing towards the bathroom — "to Greg?"

"Actually, that's fair. G-Squad does have future vision".

"For the last time, Amethyst, that's not how we are calling it!"

Pearl and Amethyst continued bickering until Steven emerged out of the house.

"Stop it, guys! Amethyst, you are the most easygoing person I have met! And Pearl, you are really good at swordﬁghting! You both have your strengths, you don't have to argue!"

"Steven..." — replied Pearl, awestruck by his praise.

"You know, I'm sorry. You were right to send Garnet to Greg". — apologized Amethyst

"I'm sorry too. I should have used less... hurtful... phrasing". — apologized Pearl

"See, much better! Here." — said Steven, approaching both of them and giving them a hug.

"You are in your pajamas, Steven!" — relented Pearl, though she quickly reciprocated the hug. " _Oh God, Opal needs to happen before Jasper..._ " — whispered Steven.

"Did you say something, Steven?" — Pearl inquired, not breaking the hug.

"It's nothing, Pearl" — sighed Steven.

* * *

The next day, the Gems left as promised, though not before Greg showed up.

"So, Shoo-ball, Garnet said you had a time-traveling adventure?" — asked Greg worriedly.

"Yes, Dad, everything went great for 5 years and now I have to do it again. You can't imagine how many secrets the Gems have. And God, do they have issues! Anyway, I gotta write this all down and not mess any of this up".

"Are you okay?"

"Well, I was stuck on Homeworld in a prison for a couple of days without food, got separated from my gem and I'm sure I would have died if it weren't for Connie, saved the town from the Electric Skull immediately after. Yes, I'm ﬁne!"

Greg reached to hug his son halfway through his explanation. He didn't want to get involved with the magic stuff, but it's obvious his son is not okay right now. He did the only thing he could: listen. But one question nagged him and he decided to ask it ﬁrst:

"Who's Connie?"

* * *

When the Gems came back, they saw Steven on the couch in front of three stacks of paper.

"You are back!" He quickly hugged the Gems and continued: "So, here are the events that happened in chronological order. Please don't look in the last stack, none of you are ready for that yet. So, this year I got my shield and bubble to work, I met Connie, I freed Lapis Lazuli, we bubbled the Heaven and Earth Beetle, and the ﬁrst Homeworld ship came."

Gasps of the Gems interrupted Steven. "I think you should stop here, Steven." — deadpanned Garnet.

"Is there a way to prevent... Homeworld from coming?" — asked Pearl

"We could delay it, but they would eventually come for the Cluster. Besides, they could assign different gems to the mission and I'm not sure I would be able to befriend them".

"Wait, so you are saying... Nevermind. Did you like how everything unfolded in your version of the... future?" — queried Pearl.

"Yes! Some things could certainly be better, but I wouldn't be against redoing everything the same way".

"We will follow your advice then, Steven. If you need to ﬁx anything, I have the Hourglass, just explain it to me". — said Garnet — "But ﬁrst, since you already mentioned it, you will need to tell us more about that 'Cluster'"

* * *

One explanation later, all three Gems were angry. Garnet specifically had trouble staying fused. "We need to deal with that right now!"

"Stop, we can't! We need the drill to take care of the Cluster and we need the fusion experiments in the Kindergarten so that Peridot doesn't try to contact Homeworld about them! We need to do stuff in order!"

"Right. So the ﬁrst thing you said was your shield? Did you try that yet?" — asked Pearl

"Actually, I was too caught into writing this that I didn't think about it. Let me try now then!"

Steven steps back and swings his arm defensively. Nothing happens.

"Oh man. Let's try again? I gotta concentrate on my emotions..."

Steven strained his face to the point where it is comical. Everyone was waiting with baited breath. ( _Obviously, the Gems didn't need to breathe, but the silence was still apparent_ ). Suddenly, the shield appeared projected out of Steven's Gem. Steven sighed of relief.

"Well, at least it's working, but I guess that takes a toll on me. Makes sense, after all I somehow morphed into my old body. How does that thing even work?" — questioned Steven.

"Well, I have only heard of Gems using the Hourglass, and since we don't age... Though surprisingly they would switch into their old form as a side-effect. I guess Homeworld designed it that way so that Gems going back would be less suspicious. Though it is interesting how this worked on you..." — Pearl mused.

"Science, boring!" — snapped Amethyst. Pearl looked at her with discontent. — "However that thing works, it got you back, and in one piece. What was the other thing you said you could do? Bubble?"

"Right". — agreed Steven

Steven threw his arms to the side. Suddenly, a pink bubble appeared around him. Steven dismissed the bubble but seemed tired.

"Okay, I really gotta work on that endurance. Oh, wait, I meant the other bubble too!"

Steven picked up a spoon from the counter into his hands and concentrated on it. A pink bubble surrounding the spoon appeared. Steven tapped the top. It disappeared.

"Garnet, could you check the Burning Room?"

Garnet was already entering the temple. She returned three second later, holding the spoon. "Good job, Steven".

"I gotta wash it!" — exclaimed Pearl, grabbing the spoon out of Garnet's hand and going directly to the sink.

Everyone except Pearl chuckled at her antics.

"Well, then, my real involvement on missions didn't start until the Centipeetle, because I didn't have powers, but this is great! I can come earlier! I need to train myself for endurance. _Maybe I can do this quicker the second time around?_ " — mused Steven.

* * *

The evening was uneventful. Everyone avoided asking Steven questions about the future, though on Greg's advice everyone comforted Steven to the best of their ability.

As Steven went to bed, the Gems went in the temple. They met in Pearl's room.

"Well, I think Steven grew a lot in these ﬁve years. I just wish he didn't have to face Rose's... mistakes. But it seems our time defending Earth from Homeworld has just begun..." — mused Pearl.

"I agree to bring Steven on missions". — said Garnet.

"Yay! Mission buddy!" — chimed Amethyst.

"I certainly hope this isn't the attitude you will have during missions. He will look up to the three of us". — lectured Pearl.

"Three years is a lot of time for a human. We have yet to see his attitude during missions". — reminded Garnet.

"I thought this was a vote. I do also agree to bring Steven, provided we pack enough supplies in case we get lost. He's half-human, after all". — agreed Pearl.

"Well, I think he will be ﬁne. In case this is still a vote, I agree too". — said Amethyst in an unusually serious tone.

"Meeting disbanded". — deadpanned Garnet, leaving to the Burning Room.

"You know where to ﬁnd me". — sung Amethyst, jumping into one of the fountains.

"Good night to you too". — replied Pearl to her already empty room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like some characters are OOC in this one. Please help me find by pointing out what feels weird to you. I don't think I even got the dynamics of the CG right.
> 
> I have a very nice idea for the next chapter...


	3. Chapter 3: The Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kinda the scene I wrote the whole fanﬁc for. At least short-term. I will discuss my longterm goals in the end notes.  
> This chapter may be retconned or removed completely once I decide where I want to go with this work.
> 
> As of today, I retconned the following:  
> \- Thanks to [Henzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Henzy/pseuds/Henzy) I know that 2,5 years passed b/w Gem Glow and CYM. Therefore, I retcon that the Pilot happened 3 years before CYM hence 6 months before Gem Glow. (Not 5 years as previously mentioned). Hence there are only three stacks on the table when the Gems come back.
> 
> Edits to previous chapters:  
> \- I modiﬁed all instances of the em-dash dialogue into quotation marks dialogue  
> \- Chapter 2 has actual paragraph breaks now as opposed to line breaks.

As everyone left her room, Pearl left too to watch Steven sleep, though not before making sure her sword collection was in order.

As she stepped out of the Temple, she noticed the stacks of paper on the table. " _I have an opportunity here. "Greatest secret". Are we talking about the same thing, Steven?_ ". She took the sheets in her hand, mindful about not making a noise. She climbed the steps quietly. After reassuring herself Steven was still asleep, she started reading.

* * *

As Amethyst returned to her room, she decided to take a moment to appreciate her collection of interesting trinkets, whilst reﬂecting on the events of the past 2 days. " _Steven is acting weird. I mean, how much could have changed in 3 years? Wait, I know how to learn just that. Oh, but_ Pierogi _would be there watching Ste-man. I am_ sure _she's reading that script right now. Well, only one way to ﬁnd out_ ".

Amethyst headed out of her room. She glanced at the coffee table. " _Well, look at this. Pierogi did take everything. Fun police_ ".

Pearl heard the noise of the Temple Door. " _That must be Garnet, trying to catch me red handed!_ "

Pearl stored quickly the papers in her gem. She turned around. She gasped of surprise.

" **Ame...** " — she shouted, though quickly switching to a whisper — " _Amethyst, what are you doing here?_ "

Amethyst replied deﬁantly, though keeping her voice down: " _I could ask the same of you, seeing how Ste-man's papers disappeared?_ "

Suddenly, Steven stirred in his sleep. " _Yes, Connie, let's see Dogcopter..._ "

Pearl stiffened and projected: " _Let's take this outside_ ", pointing angrily at the door.

Amethyst didn't bother giving an answer, though she quietly left the house. Pearl followed suit soon after.

They stood next to each other on the porch. They took a moment to listen to the waves. Amethyst broke the silence: "So, you were reading Ste-man's script thing. Why?"

Pearl replied: "He said yesterday he knows my biggest secret. I want to know if we're talking..." — she strained to keep her hands down — "... about the same thing. But I wonder why that was the ﬁrst thing you noticed. Did you want to read it too?"

"Well, yeah, all that talk of secrets and us not being ready... **_I_ **decide what I'm ready for!"

"If we are talking about the same thing, this is going to be really unpleasant for all of us".

"I don't care! Let's just read it together!"

"Well Garnet probably..."

"If G-squad had an issue with it, she would have mentioned it at the meeting, wouldn't she?".

"Fair point. Well, let's read _the script of our lives_ , shall we?"

"Pierogi, you don't have to be dramatic!"

* * *

Garnet stood in the Burning Room. She Saw Pearl and Amethyst reading Steven's papers. But she also Saw that interfering would somehow anger her. She decided to let it slide and focused instead on Steven's future. It was very uncertain but she would try again and again.

* * *

"So wait. **Rose Quartz, _leader_ of the Crystal Gems, _was actually Pink Diamond?!_** "

"Well, Amethyst, you see..." — Pearl tried to respond but her hands ﬂew to her mouth.

"It says here you had a "gag order". What does that even _mean_?"

Pearl's hands still covered her mouth and her expression betrayed her torture.

"Does it hurt?"

Pearl's face contorted into an even bigger grimace, somehow.

"Okay, okay, let's talk about... ugh... your sword collection. What's... er... the oldest one you have?"

"Oh, well, you see, I lived on Earth for six thousand years and in this time, I have seen a lot of great weapon designs. The ﬁrst one I came across was..." — Pearl continued speaking, but Amethyst tuned her out.

" _Wow, that was cruel of Pink... Rose. I wonder if Ste-man can undo that?_ "

"Pierogi, I didn't actually want a history lesson, you know. Let's just hang out here, together".

Pearl stopped her monologue and blushed. "I think I would enjoy that, Amethyst".

As they stood on the porch and ﬁnished reading Steven's notes, Pearl couldn't help but feel proud for Steven's achievements and for herself. They stood on the porch until sunrise, Amethyst hugging Pearl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. I wanted to write Amethyst&Pearl ﬂuff. Yes. It is OOC at this point of their development but please suspend judgment. Think of it as "Amethyst noticed Pearl's pain and decided to suspend their bickering"
> 
> So. Longterm plans. I don't have any. Actually, that's not true.  
> My ﬁrst idea going into this was "Haha. Steven has future vision. He will be OP Sapphire, let's make it a joke"  
> But I can make this series into a rewrite of the show: "Steven Universe 2.0™. Now with less horrible secrets because Steven knows them all and reveals them on day 1!"
> 
> I can also be cruel. I just thought of the plot point: **spoiler cuz I might actually use it**
> 
> Whatever I take, I need to think through. Make an outline. I am taking a short break to think this through. Also, to read writing tips cuz I'm not good. You have all seen my em-dash dialogue because I don't know how to write properly.

**Author's Note:**

> Please do not expect regular updates. ~~Might remain a one-shot.~~
> 
> Will ~~be abandoned~~ have even less regular updates after August 26. Will need to focus on school. Sorry not sorry.
> 
> Thanks for the amazing support so far!


End file.
